I am installing all new wiring in my 54. Having connected everything, with no battery installed yet, I did a continuity check between the ignition switch "Batt." terminal and the "Ign." terminal. I get some (Not full) continuity with the ignition in the "off" position and full continuity with the ignition in to "on" position. The "acc." terminal gets no continuity in the "off" position and full continuity in the "on" position. The "ign." terminal is connected to the resistor then to the positive terminal of the coil. I also connected a wire from the positive terminal of the coil to the "I" terminal of the solenoid. Is it correct to get some continuity between the "batt." terminal and the "ign." terminal with the switch off? Am I getting some feed through the resistor via the wire that goes from the coil positive to the solenoid "I" terminal? Is this the proper route to connect? Also, when I disconnected the coil wire from the resistor, I did not have continuity across the "batt." and "ign" terminals with the switch off. Your thoughts will be helpful!!!

Thanks,
Bob

 

Are you on a continuity mode or ohms on your meter? What kind of resistance do you see from the BATT to IGN? To answer your question, no, there should not be any continuity.

 

Bob, you might try reconnecting the wire from the I terminal to the resistor then disconnect the wire from the coil I terminal to the solenoid. Now do the continuity test again, this will tell you if the problem is in the resistor/coil portion of the circuit or in the starter solenoid. Are you sure you are hooked up to the I terminal on the solenoid and not the S? Sometimes when testing these circuits I will hook up the battery and use a test light to check for power at the I terminal with the key off. Occasionally I have detected circuits with a digital OHM meter that were not actually causing a problem when everything was hooked up. I think this sometimes comes through instruments or solenoid winding's.

 

Are you 12v or 6? I assume 12v. The I wire goes straight to the "hot" connection on the coil, the (+) connection for 12v/neg. ground. It bypasses the ballast resistor. The normal ignition feed from the ignition switch goes to the ballast, thru the ballast to the (+) terminal.

 

Ya I was wondering if he was 6 or 12V and or pos or neg ground also.

 

This is a 12 volt negative ground system. The solenoid "I" wire does go straight to the coil positive terminal and the coil wire goes from the "ign" terminal of the switch to one end of the resistor. The other end of the resistor is connected directly to the coil positive terminal. A wire then runs from the coil negative terminal to the distributor.

I am using an analog multimeter in the ohm mode using the RX100 scale just to see if there was any connection between the ignition switch terminals. Yesterday when I checked the circuit with the key off, I got some movement of the needle which was about half of what I got with the key on. Today I checked again and got very little (but some) movement with the key off. Now I'm scratching my head!!! Is a very little reading ok? I plan on installing the battery tomorrow but I am not so sure I have everything just right. I don't want to cook the system to be "overdone"! I am not sure if there is a problem or exactly how to check the coil, resistor or solenoid. The ignition switch is brand new as are all the wires.

 

RimRock, I will try your check method and see what I get.

 

See what the reading is from the BATT terminal to ground, with the switch in the OFF position.

 

If you're just checking continuity, make sure that you have isolated the circuit. So disconnect the ignition side of your switch by disconnecting the wire from the ballast resistor. Also disconnect the battery wire from the ignition switch. Test from the batt terminal on the key switch to the wire that is now hanging by the ballast resistor. If there are any coils in a circuit such as the ballast resistor or the ignition solenoid it could cause a noticeable inductive kick when you attach the multi-meter.